Book
Measure for Measure
First published 1623
The Duke of Vienna temporarily withdraws from government and gives authority to the severe Angelo, who revives neglected laws against sexual misconduct. Claudio is condemned to death for impregnating Juliet before marriage, and his sister Isabella appeals to Angelo for mercy.
Angelo offers to spare Claudio only if Isabella yields to him, turning public morality into private coercion. The disguised Duke secretly manages a plan involving Mariana, an abandoned fiancée, and eventually returns to judge the officials and petitioners before him. Shakespeare’s dark comedy tests the distance between law and justice, especially when rulers demand standards they do not themselves meet.
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